Sweet Briar in the News

Colleges and Universities A-Z Sweet Briar College
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Sweet Briar is a college that may be a good fit for D22. We have been watching intently as they rebuild from their near closure. There are a couple of new items of interest lately.

The first is the announcement that Vassar’s Associate Dean has been named Dean of Sweet Briar:
https://sbc.edu/news/vassars-associate-dean-teresa-garrett-named-dean-of-the-college-at-sweet-briar/

The second is an enterprise agriculture program that looks interesting:
https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/sweet-briar-returns-to-its-roots-looks-to-the-future/article_499de694-4fa9-5696-ba7e-dd96e53beff4.html

I also see that Sweet Briar’s bond rating has been raised for the third time:
https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/sweet-briar-bond-ratings-continue-upward-trend/article_9ea60ae1-ca6b-545b-8309-5d30851f2c83.html

Does anyone have any first hand information about Sweet Briar? President Woo is aggressively making changes at the college. I hope she is successful!

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Does anyone have any current information about Sweet Briar?

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Washing Post article earlier this year listed Sweet Briar as one of 20+ private colleges that were opting to significantly lower tuition:

https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/sweet-briar-among-private-colleges-slashing-tuition/article_4df4ed56-1de9-11e9-ad6f-f7c2e1722c66.html

They had 337 freshman last fall.

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@barrons I noticed that you have posted a number of times about Sweet Briar. Do you have any current news?

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How is Sweet Briar doing now? Are they out of danger? Is it a place worth considering?

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There seems to be positive news about the college. I am curious how many new students enrolled this fall.

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I am sad. We are a military family and have access to the GI Bill for our daughter. There is a place where you can research schools to determine if they accept the GI Bill and how much $$$ is offered by the school. When I looked up Sweet Briar on that tool, there was a large “CAUTION” warning posted at the top in bright yellow. Then you click on that and it says that Sweet Briar is “significantly out of compliance” both financially and administratively and that “academic quality” is compromised. I searched several other schools we are looking at. None of them had that warning. I was so hoping that this college would work for us.

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@AgouraLiz would you be willing to look up a school for me? I can message you privately.

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@murray93 sure I will help you!

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@AgouraLiz thank you for posting about SBC and the GI Bill. I am a graduate of SBC and was concerned when I saw your post. I reached out to the college and they have looked into it. I have been told that the warning has been removed. Sweet Briar is a wonderful school and has a bright future. I encourage you to reconsider Sweet Briar.

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@chpp99 . Thank you. But a day late and a dollar short. Our daughter applied to a school Early Decision and was accepted. She will be attending. It is too bad I didnt have this information 2 months ago about Sweet Briar. I would tell you that you should encourage your college to keep a watchful eye on these sort of things. Multiple people reached out to me and were disappointed with the yellow “CAUTION” warning.

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I am a graduate of Sweet Briar and I had terrible experiences with the administration (mostly Student Life). Pretty much everyone in Student Life is either incompetent or actively trying to make students lives harder. They do not respect privacy laws, they infantilize the students constantly, and the Dean of Student Life actively targets students who’s lifestyle she does not approve. You’re lucky you got a warning before your daughter committed to a school like that. In addition, my bill was almost always wrong by thousands of dollars.